T-Mobile USA will finally carry Apple devices in 2013

Deutsche Telekom has announced an agreement with Apple, but no specifics yet.

T-Mobile, the only major US carrier without any official Apple offerings, will begin selling some products to subscribers in 2013. T-Mobile USA's parent company, Deutsche Telekom, said in a press conference on Thursday (hat tip to AllThingsD) that the company had entered into an agreement with Apple, but did not specify whether it involved iPhones, iPads, both, or something entirely new.

Before the original iPhone came out in 2007, it had been rumored that T-Mobile would be the carrier to first offer the device. That honor ended up going to AT&T, which remained the exclusive iPhone carrier until Apple added Verizon and Sprint last year. Since then, the iPhone has become available directly from a number of smaller regional carriers as well. AT&T, Verizon, and Sprint all carry versions of the iPad as well.

Poor T-Mobile, left out in the cold, has been relegated to supporting hordes of unlocked GSM iPhone users, who either brought their devices over from AT&T or purchased them unlocked from Apple.

Unlocked GSM iPhones should work on T-Mobile despite their unofficial support status, but there are still downsides—namely, the inability to use T-Mobile's 3G or upcoming LTE networks for data. Presumably, once T-Mobile carries the iPhone (and possibly the iPad) on an official basis, the devices will be able to function on the faster data networks.

Deutsche Telekom has not provided a specific timeline for the rollout, so it's possible we won't see Apple products from the company until later in the year.